Citizens with Expired Passports Will Not Be Included in Electoral Rolls

Individuals whose passports have expired will not be included in the electoral rolls for the upcoming local government elections. This was stated by the Chair of the Central Election Commission (CEC), Tigran Mukuchyan, in response to a question from Gegham Nazaryan of the 'Armenia' faction.

Gegham Nazaryan remarked, "You know better than I do that there are tens of thousands of people on the electoral rolls who have not lived in Armenia for 20 or 30 years, and moreover, many are no longer citizens of the Republic of Armenia. Why has the CEC or the current authorities never raised the issue of cleaning up these rolls?"

Tigran Mukuchyan responded that the problem is not solely about cleaning up the rolls, but rather about the methodology of compiling the lists. Currently, to compile the rolls, an individual must be a citizen of the Republic of Armenia and be registered in Armenia.

"According to the latest changes, which will apply to these local elections, all citizens whose passport validity has expired will not be included in these lists. If we wish to restrict the inclusion of individuals in the electoral rolls for various reasons, we need to directly change the methodology for compiling the lists. Today, constitutional law has established a specific order regarding who should be included in these lists, and the electoral rolls are formed in accordance with this order," Mukuchyan stated.

He added that the electoral legislation also provides broad tools for fully monitoring and overseeing the process, particularly through the publication of the rolls by polling stations, their constant availability for search on the CEC website, and the publication of signed lists after the elections. The CEC chair indicated that if another methodology is determined for compiling these lists, the authorized body will do so accordingly, but the current legislation provides full oversight of these processes.

National Assembly President Alen Simonyan noted that the authorities are also concerned about the issues related to the electoral rolls and emphasized the need to resolve this matter once and for all. Mukuchyan responded that part of the solution will already be in place for these elections, as it has been established that data concerning citizens with invalid passports will not be present in the electoral rolls.

"It is assumed that those individuals whose passports have expired and who have not replaced their passports are primarily citizens who have been living abroad for a long time and have not applied for passport renewal," he said.